Extremist Mu-slim cleric Abu Hamza was today facing a string of terrorism charges which could see him jailed for life in the US.

The hook-handed leader, linked to the kidnap and killing of a North East lecturer in Yemen, is accused of playing a key role in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

The preacher was labelled "a freelance consultant to terrorism groups worldwide" as he appeared in court in London yesterday to face a warrant for his extradition to the US.

The 46-year-old could be jailed for up to 100 years for charges including conspiring to set up terrorist training camps in Oregon and Afghanistan.

He is accused of involvement in a hostage-taking incident in Yemen in 1998 in which four hostages - including Durham University mathematics lecturer Dr Peter Rowe - were killed.

US Secretary of State John Ashcroft gave details of the 11 charges Hamza faced and said hostage-taking was a crime which, in theory, carried the death penalty under US law.

But Downing Street confirmed Hamza could not be extradited to face execution abroad under current UK rules for extradition and any such sentence, if imposed, would not be carried out.

Dr Rowe and his wife Claire Marston, who was then an accountancy lecturer at Northumbria University, were among 16 British and Australian tourists seized and driven to a remote camp.

They were held as hostages to ensure the release of political prisoners but an attempted rescue by the armed forces turned into a bloodbath in which Prof Marston was shot in the shoulder and Dr Rowe in the back.

Dr Rowe, originally from Canada, was killed, but his wife survived and is now a professor of accountancy at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Both the 60-year-old academic and his wife, who had lived together in Durham, enjoyed adventurous holidays but never took "stupid risks."

Hamza is likely to face several court appearances and the process could take months as suspects have the right to appeal.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said Hamza was being extradited on the basis of US evidence about activities in Oregon, Afghanistan and possibly Yemen. He said: "There has been controversy about what Abu Hamza has been doing, what he has been saying in particular, which led me again to use the new Immigration Act 2002 to withdraw his citizenship."